Though Gil Vicente was court dramatist for Manuel the Fortunate and for John III of Portugal and wrote his short dramatic pieces primarily for performance at court festivals, he recognized the worth of reproducing in his dialogue the rich and racy speech of the common people, and whenever possible he availed himself of all sorts of folk-lore material. Thus, we find him weaving ballads into his dialogue, ornamenting his plays with lyrical passages inspired by traditional songs and dances, and making use of games, superstitions, incantations, terms of abuse, and other popular elements. Gil Vicente, then, antedates Juan de la Cueva in his employment of ballad verses in the dialogue, and so becomes the first to essay a practice which later, under the genius of Lope de Vega, made popular poetry an integral part of the Spanish comedia.